Nashville On MLS's Expansion Short List

NASHVILLE, TN — The commissioner of Major League Soccer announced Nashville as one of 10 cities being considered for the league's next four expansion teams.

Two of the four teams — the league's 25th and 26th — will be announced in the second or third quarter of 2017 and will begin play in the 2020 season. Those teams will be required to pay a $150 million expansion fee. The other two teams will be announced at a yet-to-be-determined later date to join the league at a yet-to-be-determined time after paying a (you guessed it) yet-to-be-determined fee.

Joining Nashville on the not-so-short-list are Charlotte, Cincinnati, Detroit, Raleigh/Durham, Sacramento, St. Louis, San Antonio, San Diego and Tampa/St. Petersburg. The league left open the possibility for other cities to join the hunt.

Nashville's effort is led by Tennessee business power player Bill Hagerty — Gov. Bill Haslam's former Commissioner of Economic & Community Development — and includes a host of other heavyweights. The effort has the backing of executives from major Nashville-area companies like HCA, Bridgestone, Nissan and Ryman Hospitality Properties, along with the city's existing top-level professional sports teams, the Tennessee Titans and the Nashville Predators.

It also has the support of Nashville SC which is set to begin play in the United Soccer League — the third tier of the American soccer pyramid — in 2018. Stadium plans for Nashville SC are still unclear. The MLS requires a "comprehensive stadium plan" for expansion teams and has, recently, all-but-required a soccer-specific facility.

Nashville SC succeeded Nashville FC, a supporter-owned team that competed in the NPSL, on the fourth-tier of American soccer. Nashville FC essentially folded when it sold its trademarks to the ownership group of the USL expansion team, though those trademarks had to later be abandoned, because a youth team called Nashville FC has existed since 1991.

Twenty-one USL teams have affiliation agreements with MLS teams and the MLS is pushing for all of its clubs to affiliate with a team in that league. One USL team — the Orlando Breakers — developed into an MLS team, Orlando City.